After watching Transformers: The Last Knight, one ardently hopes, and even prays that the fifth one in the Transformer series is the last one. Oh no! We are told that two more of the kind are in the pipeline.
As for the plot (of sorts), in 484 AD, the first Transformer on earth gives King Arthur’s wizard Merlin a magical wand to defeat evil, after having forged an alliance with the Knights of Iacon, a group of 12 Transformers who have hidden on earth. Then these 12 knights combine into a dragon to help King Arthur triumph over the Saxons.
Now, flashforward to the present day. The ultimate evil plans to return to earth to regain the wand—a terrible truth that neither the humans nor the other Transformers know about. The wand is the key to all creation on the planet of Cybertron, home planet of the Transformers. As Cybertron is decaying, an evil queen leads the planet closer to earth to regain the wand. Meanwhile on earth, governments have declared Transformers illegal, and have established the multinational Transformer Reaction Force (TRF) to exterminate the alien robots.
With Optimus Prime having left earth to search for his creator, the key to saving the planet’s future lies buried in the secrets of the past and the hidden history of Transformers on earth. Now, it is up to Cade Yeager (Mark Wahlberg), the titular Last Knight; Viviane Wembly (Laura Haddock), the last surviving descendent of Merlin; and British Lord Sir Edmund Burton (Anthony Hopkins) to prevent earth from colliding with Cybertron.
Transformers: The Last Knight is a direct sequel to Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014). Though the story of the The Last Knight picks up soon after the events of Age of Extinction, the latest one is a standalone film of sorts. And, this is perhaps its only saving grace—those who have not watched the earlier ones can manage to sit through it provided they have nothing else worthwhile to do for two and a half hours.
The entire film is an audio-visual mishmash of incongruous elements. Almost everything that happens in the course of 154 minutes is unpredictable. It is not about suspense but about loosely cobbled up scenes and unrelated action sequences that defy comprehension or lead to any logical conclusion. One is left wondering as to whatever happened to director Michael Bay, who claims to make films for 14-year-old boys.
As for the cast, most of the human actors are a huge waste. Mark Wahlberg’s bored look all along reflects his disinterest in the role. This is more or less true of Laura Haddock and Anthony Hopkins as well.
Film: Transformers: The Last Knight
Director: Michael Bay
Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Laura Haddock, Anthony Hopkins, Josh Duhamel, Stanley Tucci, John Goodman
Rating: 1.5/5
